Heaven
God has a kingdom that includes all of creation. His kingdom spans both sides of the veil. The natural side is openly visible to me. The supernatural side has been temporarily hidden...withdrawn...separated, for love.
God is an overflowing and infinite well of bright blazing transcendant beauty and holiness. The glory of His purity shines brighter and hotter than 10 million suns...no finite light can compare to infinite light. God is fiery, bright, and brilliant in light...a consuming and burning light too bright for fallen flesh to approach:
I Timothy 6:16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
When Adam and Eve were created, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, walking in divine connection with God face to face and in the Spirit...never lacking access to His heart and able to lay eyes on Him. They were made with an infinite capacity to encounter an infinitely bright God. At the time of their rebellion, sin defiled them...they became something "less than infinite" in their capacity to encounter God. Anything less than infinite is "infinitely less." By sheer math, any limitation in capacity to encounter perfection made God deadly to their less than infinite frame, and for love, God withdrew from the fullness of what He called "very good" in Genesis 1:31: God dwelling with mankind in the physical natural realm. For love, God erected the veil for my own safety:
Genesis 3:23-24 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Heaven is where ever God is. At the time of creation, heaven was here, because God dwelt with man. The land was blessed. It was a lush garden full of all the richness of infinite life. When heaven was separated from the physical, the garden became hard earth, requiring toil and unpleasant work to produce what once naturally grew in abundance. So much was lost in the fall of man...
We were made to be fascinated in life. We were made to be engaged in exciting work. We were made to be fulfilled by the never ending...infinitely interesting...partnership with the One who continually wells up new beauty and purpose and life. Joy is confidence that the well of satisfaction will never run dry...joy is confidence in what our heart was wired for...satisfaction in the presence of infinite love...will not be lacking. We all long for Eden inside.
We were made to worship what we see. Worship connected us to the most glorious...the best and most satisfying... thing we could see with our eyes. Adam and Eve SAW God...worshiping Him was natural. This God-given connection between heart and eyes worked flawlessly when the bright radiant beauty of God was plainly visible to mankind. We were always meant to "behold and become"...to lay our eyes on His beauty, catch a new satisfying glimpse of the One who never ends, and respond with words...this still occurs on that side of the veil 24/7:
Revelation 4:8 The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
This passage describes the Seraphim...also called the "burning ones" and the "living creatures." They are burning...like God...they are full of life...like God. They behold Him continually, and they reflect Him in their very nature...alive and on fire with vibrant desire for the One who never ends. God continually satisfies them with new glimpses of beauty and glory and love.
We are meant to live in the same reality...to behold and become:
II Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
In order for us to live in the reality we were designed to be satisfied in, we need to look beyond the veil. Since the fall, the easiest thing to lock our eyes on are beautiful people, or houses, or cars, or shoes, or the next vacation spot. We are tempted to worship...to dream about and celebrate...these things available to our eyes. But our eyes are no longer trustworthy to direct our worship. The natural gate to our heart has been separated from infinite love by the necessary veil. That leaves one option open for worship to be true and satisfying...our imagination...that place in our mind that still can give us glimpses through the veil.
God designed us with an imagination. The movie screen and photo album of our mind. Because of free will, we can project anything we want on the screen of our mind. We can fuel our imagination with any source we like...tv, music, games, dreams of success and power, and the life we long for. We can replay past events, both good and bad...and look forward with hope to what is next.
We live in a time where our minds are innundated with possibilities and options. We live in a time where more entertainment is available to us than ever before, and more dissatisfaction is apparent around us than ever before...why is this? Because we mostly chose to fuel our imagination by entertainment which can never satisfy. An infinite heart can never be satisfied by anything on this side of the veil.
We press in to heaven a little and then think our "break" should be something on this side of the veil! Our down-time is generally defined by vegging out in front of an electric box, or a book, or a magazine which is invented...purposefully designed... to fuel our imagination with something less than infinite beauty and love. The truth is, no one burns out from too much gazing on God. We burn out from trying to live two lives, one on this side and one where life is.
Someday soon, the veil will be completely removed. Heaven is coming to earth when Jesus returns. Until that day, we are supposed to enter the other side through our imagination and our requests...through faith...believing without seeing. This is agreement with Jesus, who says:
John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
When we fix the gaze of our "minds eye" on Jesus...fueling our imagination with the true words of the Bible, we agree with Jesus. We say "Jesus, I am investing myself in being with you where you are." When earth agrees with heaven, the ACTUAL veil is removed, incrementally. Reach by reach, we see heaven appear HERE. People get healed, situations resolved, angels appear... But for love...for free will...everyone gets what they want, the more I place myself on the other side of the veil, the more the other side of the veil places itself before me.
Jesus tore the symbolic veil in temple as a sign of what is available now, since His blood made it possible for us to come before His throne in our minds...to see ourselves there in our imagination:
Matthew 27:51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
I say "let heaven come" and heaven says "let Tom come!"
The more I push aside the distractions...even permissible ones...and fuel my mind with information and songs from the other side of the veil...to more the other side will appear here...glory all around me!
God is an overflowing and infinite well of bright blazing transcendant beauty and holiness. The glory of His purity shines brighter and hotter than 10 million suns...no finite light can compare to infinite light. God is fiery, bright, and brilliant in light...a consuming and burning light too bright for fallen flesh to approach:
I Timothy 6:16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
When Adam and Eve were created, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, walking in divine connection with God face to face and in the Spirit...never lacking access to His heart and able to lay eyes on Him. They were made with an infinite capacity to encounter an infinitely bright God. At the time of their rebellion, sin defiled them...they became something "less than infinite" in their capacity to encounter God. Anything less than infinite is "infinitely less." By sheer math, any limitation in capacity to encounter perfection made God deadly to their less than infinite frame, and for love, God withdrew from the fullness of what He called "very good" in Genesis 1:31: God dwelling with mankind in the physical natural realm. For love, God erected the veil for my own safety:
Genesis 3:23-24 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Heaven is where ever God is. At the time of creation, heaven was here, because God dwelt with man. The land was blessed. It was a lush garden full of all the richness of infinite life. When heaven was separated from the physical, the garden became hard earth, requiring toil and unpleasant work to produce what once naturally grew in abundance. So much was lost in the fall of man...
We were made to be fascinated in life. We were made to be engaged in exciting work. We were made to be fulfilled by the never ending...infinitely interesting...partnership with the One who continually wells up new beauty and purpose and life. Joy is confidence that the well of satisfaction will never run dry...joy is confidence in what our heart was wired for...satisfaction in the presence of infinite love...will not be lacking. We all long for Eden inside.
We were made to worship what we see. Worship connected us to the most glorious...the best and most satisfying... thing we could see with our eyes. Adam and Eve SAW God...worshiping Him was natural. This God-given connection between heart and eyes worked flawlessly when the bright radiant beauty of God was plainly visible to mankind. We were always meant to "behold and become"...to lay our eyes on His beauty, catch a new satisfying glimpse of the One who never ends, and respond with words...this still occurs on that side of the veil 24/7:
Revelation 4:8 The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
This passage describes the Seraphim...also called the "burning ones" and the "living creatures." They are burning...like God...they are full of life...like God. They behold Him continually, and they reflect Him in their very nature...alive and on fire with vibrant desire for the One who never ends. God continually satisfies them with new glimpses of beauty and glory and love.
We are meant to live in the same reality...to behold and become:
II Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
In order for us to live in the reality we were designed to be satisfied in, we need to look beyond the veil. Since the fall, the easiest thing to lock our eyes on are beautiful people, or houses, or cars, or shoes, or the next vacation spot. We are tempted to worship...to dream about and celebrate...these things available to our eyes. But our eyes are no longer trustworthy to direct our worship. The natural gate to our heart has been separated from infinite love by the necessary veil. That leaves one option open for worship to be true and satisfying...our imagination...that place in our mind that still can give us glimpses through the veil.
God designed us with an imagination. The movie screen and photo album of our mind. Because of free will, we can project anything we want on the screen of our mind. We can fuel our imagination with any source we like...tv, music, games, dreams of success and power, and the life we long for. We can replay past events, both good and bad...and look forward with hope to what is next.
We live in a time where our minds are innundated with possibilities and options. We live in a time where more entertainment is available to us than ever before, and more dissatisfaction is apparent around us than ever before...why is this? Because we mostly chose to fuel our imagination by entertainment which can never satisfy. An infinite heart can never be satisfied by anything on this side of the veil.
We press in to heaven a little and then think our "break" should be something on this side of the veil! Our down-time is generally defined by vegging out in front of an electric box, or a book, or a magazine which is invented...purposefully designed... to fuel our imagination with something less than infinite beauty and love. The truth is, no one burns out from too much gazing on God. We burn out from trying to live two lives, one on this side and one where life is.
Someday soon, the veil will be completely removed. Heaven is coming to earth when Jesus returns. Until that day, we are supposed to enter the other side through our imagination and our requests...through faith...believing without seeing. This is agreement with Jesus, who says:
John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
When we fix the gaze of our "minds eye" on Jesus...fueling our imagination with the true words of the Bible, we agree with Jesus. We say "Jesus, I am investing myself in being with you where you are." When earth agrees with heaven, the ACTUAL veil is removed, incrementally. Reach by reach, we see heaven appear HERE. People get healed, situations resolved, angels appear... But for love...for free will...everyone gets what they want, the more I place myself on the other side of the veil, the more the other side of the veil places itself before me.
Jesus tore the symbolic veil in temple as a sign of what is available now, since His blood made it possible for us to come before His throne in our minds...to see ourselves there in our imagination:
Matthew 27:51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
I say "let heaven come" and heaven says "let Tom come!"
The more I push aside the distractions...even permissible ones...and fuel my mind with information and songs from the other side of the veil...to more the other side will appear here...glory all around me!
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